Mark Portman

No Truer Words

Zebra Records - ZD 44001

Mark Portman, piano, keyboards, synth programming; with 20 various musicians and vocalists

This CD offers a mixture of get-on-up and tender-loving arrangements, all executed with skill. Portman's "The First Time Ever I saw Your Face" has been done, and quite rightly so, by a great number of performers - we have a glorious version by Dexter Gordon on our racks. You would have to be pretty inept to handle this lovely tune badly, and this treatment doesn't detract from the appealing sentiment that Portman has written into it. There are shades of America in "Come As You Are". Portman produced, wrote and arranged all of the these songs, and he has a talent for melody, which is nicely demonstrated on the final track, "Destinations", which the man himself plays on the piano. A pleasant record. Appealing!

by Lawrence Brazier

Editor: This CD is available in Jazz Now Direct mail order catalog.

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